>> However they didn't want to be involved in the politics, and I cant say I
>> blame them.
So let's see, what where our options last year?
1. Take over Squeak (just like Andreas did now)
2. Just step aside and do a fork.
3. Nicely ask to be involved with 3.11
1) was not possible. In 3.9, both Stef and me where in the Board. (We should
not that we foundet it...)
But Stef left in disgust as it became clear the people there were not willing
to do *anything*.
And I did not seek re-election after the community made it clear that they did
not like our work on 3.9.
(and there was a PhD Thesis to write...)
As for 3: the community chose you to do 3.11! And it was made clear to us that
we did everything wrong with
3.9. And everyone seemed happy to do what Squeakers do best: Discuss while
doing nothing.
The other thing then is etoys... we put some effort into etoys in 3.9 (merge
with squeakland.org, merge
with Diego's SmallLand which was the largest etoy installation at that point).
But no child ever used it.
There was no interaction with the people who worked (payed!!) on etoys *at all*.
And it was clear that an etoys in Pharo would never be used. So why keep it?
Especially as etoys is really
not easy to maintain. (I personally rate it as unmaintainable. It's a mess of
epic proportion).
It's not an asset. It's a liability. But Squeak without etoys is not Squeak. So
another name is quite
the right thing to do, no?
Than, why do we need something like Pharo anyway? The reason is that we used
Squeak it *every* *single* *day*.
We used Squeak for teaching, we used it do do research. Phd Students used it,
Master Students used it. People that
left the university started to use it in their company.
So, I am a Researcher, and my point of view of "Why Pharo" is this:
Doing Research is like exploring a mountain. A high mountain, the peak is
covered in clouds, no idea where
exactly it is an just how high the peak is... yet it's there. And you *want* to
get there.
So what would you do in this situation? There are four approaches:
1) Talk about The Peak, but don't do anything until someone invents a
magical peak discovery device.
2) Go up. As far as you can. Do not waste time with acquiring good
equipment, do not build camps.
(building a camps is not your goal! the peak is!)
3) Go up. But while doing it, start to note how to improve your
equipment. Seek good spots for putting
up camps and storage for food. You will not find the peak this time.
But you have learned a lot.
You know where to put a camp. You know how to stock it. You know
what equipment would simplify the next try.
So you spend some energy... and haul up stuff to the secure place
and build a camp. For sure, the
next expedition can go *far far* higher!
4) Just build equipment down in the valley. Don't go up before it's
perfect!
So, I don't know what you would do. I would do 3). It has some really boring
components, this Plan 3. Hauling stuff
up the mountain is not fun. It's not glorious. And there are no Sherpas to
hire. In Research at the University,
there are no engineers. The PhD-Students and Researchers need to cary
everything themselves... not working together,
not having fun together while doing will mean that you can't do it.
So Pharo, up to now, is just that: Hauling equipment and food up the mountain
to form a stabilized camp. It's not
really that high. (other expeditions are laughing: "This is a trivial. What
idiots. They have no Vision").
But they have *no camp* at all.
And as soon as ours is ready, we rest, and than we build the next... and the
next, and the next. Higher and Higher up.
I always wonder how high we would already be (with lots of equipment and
well-rested), if we would have used this strategy
the last 10 years for Squeak. But we did not.
VPRI is doing 2). The Squeak community prefers 1). Squeak 3.11 was 4).
But I fear, the magic device will never be discovered... and Squeak died in
3.11 because there was no visible artifact.
And starting all the time from the bottom is just not going to work (it did in
the 70ties, when hills where small... Dan wrote
a paper about it even... but with the mountains of today, no way...).
So... back to haulin' more stuff....
Marcus
--
Marcus Denker -- http://www.marcusdenker.de
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